The Analyst

Tottenham stunned Man City with a 4-0 win at the Etihad Stadium, controlling the game from start to finish. Look back at the key moments from the Premier League clash with our Manchester City vs Tottenham stats page.

Manchester City suffered a demoralising 4-0 defeat at home to Tottenham Hotspur, ending their 52-game unbeaten home run across all competitions. City hadn’t lost at the Etihad since a 2-1 defeat to Brentford on 12 November 2022, but a James Maddison brace and a further strike from Pedro Porro ended that incredible run.

Maddison opened the scoring on 13 minutes, firing home from Dejan Kulusevski’s exceptional cross, before adding another seven minutes later. His second strike was even sweeter, lifting the ball over Ederson in the Man City goal after great work from Son Heung-Min.

Maddison was celebrating his 28th birthday, but fell one goal short of becoming just the third player in Premier League history to score a hat-trick on their birthday.

Back in January 2023, Spurs held a 2-0 half-time lead over City at the Etihad before eventually losing 4-2. Seven minutes into the second half, Ange Postecoglou’s side ensured that lightning didn’t strike in the same place twice.

Porro’s 52nd-minute goal came after a slick Tottenham move, with the Portuguese receiving a pass from Dominic Solanke before powering a shot past Ederson. Porro has now scored more Premier League goals than any other defender since his debut in the competition in February 2023 (8).

An injury-time goal from Brennan Johnson put the icing on the cake, and gave Guardiola the biggest thrashing in a home league game across his entire managerial career. The only other time that he’s lost a home game by four or more goals was in the UEFA Champions League back in April 2014, when Real Madrid beat his Bayern side 4-0 in Munich.

Spurs enjoyed a 3-0 win at Old Trafford against Manchester United back in September, and after this four-goal thrashing at the Etihad, they have become only the second team to beat both Man Utd and Man City away by a margin of 3+ goals in the same season since Everton in 1992-93.

For Man City, that’s now five consecutive defeats in all competitions – the worst run in Pep Guardiola’s managerial career. City last lost more consecutively between March and April 2006 under Stuart Pearce (6 in a row – the fifth game of which was also against Tottenham).

They now sit five points behind leaders Liverpool, with the Reds looking to extend that lead to eight points against Southampton on Sunday.

Our Opta match centre delivers you all the Manchester City vs Tottenham stats from their Premier League meeting.

The match centre below includes team and player stats, expected goals data, passing networks, an Opta chalkboard and more. It gives you everything you need to do your own match analysis.

Underneath the match centre you can find the official Opta stats on the game as well.

Manchester City vs Tottenham: Post-Match Facts

Pep Guardiola lost a home game by four goals for just the second time in his managerial career (also 0-4 vs Real Madrid in April 2014 with Bayern) with this Manchester City’s heaviest home defeat in any competition since February 2003 (1-5 vs Arsenal at Maine Road).

Guardiola lost to Tottenham for the ninth time as a manager in all competitions, now the outright most defeats he has suffered against an opponent in his managerial career.

Man City are the first reigning English top-flight champions to lose five games in a row in all competitions since Chelsea in March 1956.

This was just the third time a team has won away against the reigning Premier League champions by 4+ goals, with Spurs responsible for two of those (also Man Utd 1-6 Man City in 2011, and Leicester 1-6 Tottenham in May 2017).

For the second time in three weeks, Tottenham were beaten by a team previously without a league win this season. Re-live Sunday’s action with the best facts and Opta data in our Tottenham vs Ipswich stats page.

Ipswich Town earned their first win of the season with a surprise 2-1 victory at Tottenham on Sunday, meaning every team in the Premier League has now recorded at least one win in 2024-25.

Sam Szmodics and Liam Delap gave Ipswich a 2-0 lead at the break, and though Rodrigo Bentancur pulled one back for Spurs with just over 20 minutes remaining, Kieran McKenna’s side held on for a famous win.

In front of a watching Ed Sheeran, it was Ipswich’s first victory in the Premier League since a 1-0 win vs Middlesborough in April 2002, and their first away win in the competition since beating Everton 2-1 at Goodison Park in February 2002, ending a run of 12 away games in the competition without a win (D3 L9).

Tottenham have now gone 1-0 down in 13 home Premier League matches in 2024. Only Spurs themselves in 1994 (14), Ipswich in 1994 (14) and Crystal Palace in 2017 (14) have done so in more home games in a single calendar year in the competition.

Our Opta match centre delivers you all the Tottenham vs Ipswich Town stats from their Premier League meeting at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

The match centre below includes team and player stats, expected goals data, passing networks, an Opta chalkboard and more. It gives you everything you need to do your own match analysis.

Underneath the match centre you can find the official Opta stats on the game as well.

Tottenham vs Ipswich: Post-Match Facts

Liam Delap has scored 50% of Ipswich Town’s goals in the Premier League this season (6/12), with only Erling Haaland (55% – 12/22) and Chris Wood (53% – 8/15) contributing more to their teams’ overall goal tally in the competition this term.

Since the start of last season, Sam Szmodics has scored 31 league goals across his spells with Blackburn Rovers and now Ipswich, with only Haaland (39) scoring more than him across England’s top four tiers.

After failing to provide an assist in 27 consecutive matches across all competitions between January and November, Pedro Porro has now provided an assist in back-to-back matches for Spurs (v Galatasaray & Ipswich). It’s the first time the Spaniard has assisted in consecutive matches since December 2023.

Goals from Dominic Solanke (2), Brennan Johnson and James Maddison saw Spurs stage a brilliant second-half comeback to seal all three points in this Premier League clash. Look back at the match at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with our Tottenham vs Aston Villa stats page.

Dominic Solanke scored twice to give Tottenham Hotspur all three points in this clash with Aston Villa. Spurs were 1-0 down at half-time, but a sensational second-half comeback thanks to a goal from Brennan Johnson, Solanke’s brace and an injury-time James Maddison free-kick sealed the win.

Morgan Rogers had fired home the opening goal of the game from close range just after the half-hour mark, capitalising on some sloppy Tottenham defending from a corner. After the corner beat a group of players on the near post, Spurs’ goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario could only parry the ball out for Rogers, who made no mistake and scored in a third successive Premier League away appearance.

Johnson’s 49th-minute strike levelled the scores, as the former Nottingham Forest winger netted his fourth of the season in the Premier League – just one off his tally from the entire 2023-24 campaign (5).

Solanke came into this match with two goals in seven league appearances for Ange Postecoglou’s side following his transfer from Bournemouth in the summer. He doubled that tally with his two second-half strikes in the space of four minutes and 21 seconds to give Spurs an important victory.

Solanke is now the first player to score at least four goals across their first eight Premier League appearances for Tottenham since Rafael van der Vaart in 2010-11.

Maddison topped off an excellent afternoon for Spurs with a direct free-kick goal in added time, his first from a free-kick in the Premier League since October 2022.

Had they lost this match, Spurs would have found themselves six points behind the top four in the Premier League table already, but thanks to their comeback they now move up to seventh and are only two points behind rivals Arsenal.

Our Opta match centre delivers you all the Tottenham vs Aston Villa stats from Sunday’s Premier League meeting in London.

The match centre below includes team and player stats, expected goals data, passing networks, an Opta chalkboard and more. It gives you everything you need to do your own post-match analysis.

Underneath the match centre you can find the best official Opta stats on the game as well.

Tottenham vs Aston Villa Stats: Post-Match Facts

Since the start of last season, Tottenham Hotspur have gone on to win 10 Premier League matches in which they conceded the first goal; the joint-most of any team in the competition along with Manchester City, while winning three of their last four in which they’ve gone 0-1 down.

Dominic Solanke has now scored more goals against Aston Villa under Unai Emery in the Premier League than any other player, netting four goals in four appearances against them.

After scoring just five goals in his first 36 Premier League appearances for Tottenham Hotspur, Brennan Johnson has now netted four goals for the club in his last six league appearances.

Spurs’ James Maddison netted the 50th goal of his Premier League career, with what was his ninth goal from a direct free kick in the competition. Since debuting in the top-flight in 2018-19, only James Ward-Prowse (15) has netted more times from a direct free kick than Maddison (9).

We look ahead to Sunday’s Premier League game at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with our Tottenham vs Aston Villa prediction and preview. It promises to be an enthralling clash.

Tottenham vs Aston Villa Stats: The Key Insights

The Opta supercomputer makes Tottenham the favourites, with a 47.2% win likelihood.

That’s despite Spurs having lost three of their last four league meetings with Aston Villa.

However, they did win 4-0 in their last such fixture against Villa in March.

Two defeats in the space of three Premier League matches for Spurs have left them in eighth, five points off the top four heading into the weekend. However, they come into Sunday’s meeting with Villa having defeated Manchester City 2-1 in the EFL Cup.

Villa, who top the UEFA Champions League standings with three wins from as many matches in that competition, occupy fourth spot in the top flight as it stands and their only defeat in the league this term came back in August against Arsenal.

And though Opta’s model forecasts a Spurs win, it should be noted that Unai Emery’s team have won nine of their 13 away Premier League games in London under the Spaniard (D3 L1). That 69% win ratio is the best by a manager at a single club in away games in London in Premier League history (min. 10 games).

Only Liverpool (13) and Nottingham Forest (11) have claimed more away Premier League points this season than Villa (10 – W3 D1). Villa have only won as many as four of their opening five away league games in a season once before, doing so in 2020-21 (W4 L1).

Tottenham, on the other hand, have conceded the first goal in 11 of their 13 home Premier League matches in 2024.

However, they have come back to win seven of those games. The only team with more home wins when conceding first in a single year are Newcastle United in 2002 (eight).

That includes Spurs coming back from 1-0 down to beat West Ham 4-1 in their last league home match.

Tottenham have, though, lost nine of their last 16 Premier League games (W6 D1), with only Wolves (12) losing more since the first game in this run in April. Spurs had only lost seven of their first 31 games under Ange Postecoglou (W18 D6).

Only two of Tottenham’s last 71 home Premier League games, meanwhile, have ended as a draw (W47 L22) and they are the only side without a home draw since the start of last season (W16 L7). So, anticipate there to be a winner in this one.

You should expect some goals, though. Spurs have scored 49 times in 23 home Premier League games under Postecoglou. The only manager to hit 50 goals in 24 or fewer home games with Spurs is Antonio Conte (50 in first 20). Between them, these teams have already netted 34 goals in the league in 2024-25.

Having Son Heung-min back from injury could prove crucial for Spurs’ hopes. Son has been involved in nine goals in eight Premier League games against Villa (six goals, three assists), though all six of his goals against them have come at Villa Park. No player has scored more against an opponent without netting a home goal in the competition.

Villa, meanwhile, have been able to call on their bench options to great effect this season. Jhon Durán has been clinical as a substitute, and Ross Barkley came on to score in last week’s draw with Bournemouth.

In 2024, Villa have scored the most Premier League goals from subs (10) and have the most goals and assists combined from subs (10 goals, seven assists). It is the joint most sub goals they have scored in a single year, also netting 10 in 2023.

Tottenham vs Aston Villa Head-to-Head

Villa have won three of their last four Premier League away games against Tottenham (L1), including the last two in a row under Emery.

They last won three consecutive away league games against Spurs between 1922 and 1924.

Tottenham have lost three of their last four Premier League meetings with Villa overall, too, though did win the last such match 4-0 in March, with James Maddison, Brennan Johnson, Son and Timo Werner on target during a blistering second-half showing at Villa Park.

Spurs had only lost two of their previous 21 against the Villans (W16 D3).

Tottenham vs Aston Villa Prediction

Despite their recent form against Villa, Tottenham are backed by Opta’s supercomputer, with their chances of victory coming in at 47.2%.

Villa won in 29.6% of the model’s simulations, while the probability of a draw is 23.2%.

Tottenham vs Aston Villa Predicted Lineups

Opta Power Rankings

The Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system that assigns an ability score to over 13,000 domestic football teams on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the world.

Ahead of kick-off this weekend, here is the Opta Power Ranking for both sides.

Two of England’s biggest clubs meet in the EFL Cup on Wednesday in what is arguably the tie of the round. Man City‘s domestic form gives them the edge with the Opta supercomputer, but is that justified? Learn more with our Tottenham vs Man City prediction.

Tottenham vs Man City Stats: The Key Insights

Man City are strong favourites with the Opta supercomputer, winning this game 56.7% of the time.

After failing to score in each of their first five away games at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium between 2019 and 2023, Man City have won their last two there without conceding.

Tottenham have been eliminated in their last three League Cup ties against fellow Premier League sides. They went out to Chelsea in 2021-22, Nottingham Forest in 2022-23 and Fulham in 2023-24.

Tottenham welcome Premier League leaders Manchester City to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Wednesday as they go head-to-head in the fourth round of the EFL Cup.

This will be the first League Cup meeting between the teams since the 2021 final, won 1-0 by Man City at Wembley. Tottenham have won the other three games between the sides in the EFL Cup, however, in 1992 (1-0), 2003 (3-1) and 2007 (2-0).

These sides enjoyed/endured contrasting fortunes at the weekend. Spurs laboured away from home at Crystal Palace to lose 1-0. In a fairly lifeless display from the away side, Jean-Philippe Mateta’s first-half goal was enough to seal all three points for the Eagles.

It was yet another frustrating example of Tottenham’s inconsistency under Ange Postecoglou. Victories over West Ham and AZ Alkmaar have now been bookended by bad defeats against Brighton and Crystal Palace.

They currently sit ninth in the Premier League and are predicted to finish sixth. Winning the Europa League will be a priority for Spurs, but with just four fixtures to get through, the EFL Cup is arguably their best chance of winning a trophy this season.

Spurs almost didn’t get this far, though. Championship side Coventry City were minutes away from knocking them out in the third round. The Sky Blues were leading 1-0, before goals from Djed Spence and Brennan Johnson turned the game on its head.

Manchester City come into this game on the back of a five-game winning run in all competitions since their 1-1 draw with Newcastle. Their most recent opponents, Southampton, might have been fearing the worst when Erling Haaland scored his 11th league goal of the season at the weekend to open the scoring.

But despite taking 22 shots and generating almost three expected goals, Pep Guardiola’s men had to settle for a narrow win. Still, they remain overwhelming favourites to claim a record fifth consecutive Premier League title.

City have already gone one better than last year in the EFL Cup. They were dumped out in the third round in 2023-24 by Newcastle but eased past Watford in the third round thanks to goals from Jérémy Doku and Matheus Nunes.

In team news, Kevin De Bruyne, Jack Grealish and Doku will all miss out for City. Son Heung-min, who was absent for Spurs’ defeat against Palace at the weekend, has not recovered in time to feature here.

Tottenham vs Manchester City Prediction

Man City’s domestic form makes them strong favourites to win this game with the the Opta supercomputer.

You have to go back to the FA Cup final last year to find the last time they lost a competitive game. They’ve also got the better of Spurs of late and have won their last two games at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium without conceding.

Those factors see the model give them a 56.7% chance of winning the game in 90 minutes. Spurs have a 21.5% of progressing, while the draw – which would send the game to penalties – occurs in 21.8% of simulations.

Opta Power Rankings

The Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system. They assign an ability score to over 13,000 domestic football teams. This score is on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the world.

Ahead of kick-off on Wednesday, here is the Opta Power Ranking for each side.

Ange Postecoglou’s side came from a goal down to win comfortably against their London rivals. Check out the best facts and Opta data in our Tottenham vs West Ham stats page.

Tottenham brushed off the memories of their agonising 3-2 defeat at Brighton last time out as they came from behind to ease to a 4-1 win over West Ham on Saturday.

Mohammed Kudus gave the visitors the lead in the 18th minute, only for Dejan Kulusevski to equalise when his shot hit both posts and crossed the line nine minutes before the break at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Three goals in eight minutes leading up to the hour mark killed the game as Yves Bissouma, an Alphonse Areola own goal and Son Heung-min put things to bed.

Kudus made it an even worse afternoon for Julen Lopetegui’s men as he was sent off for raising his hands into the faces of both Micky van de Ven and Pape Sarr with four minutes remaining.

It was West Ham’s heaviest Premier League defeat after scoring the opening goal since January 2013, when they were beaten 5-1 at Arsenal.

Our Opta match centre delivers you all the Tottenham vs West Ham stats from their Premier League meeting at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

The match centre below includes team and player stats, expected goals data, passing networks, an Opta chalkboard and more. It gives you everything you need to do your own in-game and post-match analysis.

Underneath the match centre you can find the official Opta stats on the game as well.

Tottenham vs West Ham: Post-Match Facts

Since the start of last season, Tottenham have won eight of the 12 home Premier League games in which they have conceded first (L4) – this is at least twice as many home wins after falling 1-0 behind as any other side in the competition in this time.

Tottenham have kept just one clean sheet across their last 19 home Premier League games (a 4-0 victory over Everton in August), while Spurs’ one clean sheet on home soil in 2024 is the joint-fewest shutouts among ever-present sides in the competition (alongside Nottingham Forest, West Ham and Wolves).

Since the start of last season, only Sheffield United (seven) have conceded more own goals in the Premier League than West Ham (five), while Tottenham have benefitted from more own goals than any other side in the competition across that period (seven).

Mohammed Kudus became the first West Ham player to both score and receive a red card in a Premier League match since Nayef Aguerd vs Chelsea in August 2023, while he is just the sixth different Hammers player to have done so in the competition (eight occasions).

Tottenham are the favourites against West Ham in the eyes of the Opta supercomputer. Will Ange Postecoglou’s side respond to their latest Premier League setback? We analyse that question in our Tottenham vs West Ham prediction and preview.

Tottenham vs West Ham Stats: The Key Insights

The Opta supercomputer predicts Tottenham to come out on top, with the hosts triumphant in 55.4% of pre-match simulations.

West Ham have not defeated Spurs in back-to-back league visits since 1966.

Brennan Johnson has scored in each of his last six games for Tottenham.

Ange Postecoglou will desperately want to see a response from Tottenham when they host West Ham in Saturday’s early Premier League kick-off.

Spurs may have needed the international break to recover from their humiliation at Brighton last time out, throwing away a two-goal lead to lose 3-2 as Postecoglou fumed at the “worst defeat” of his tenure so far.

Some positives could have been taken before Georginio Rutter – helped by woeful Spurs defending – led an inspired turnaround for Fabian Hürzeler’s side, with Brennan Johnson again on target for Tottenham.

The Wales winger has scored in each of his last six games in all competitions for Spurs, a feat last achieved by Harry Kane, with those six goals one more than Johnson had previously managed in his 38 appearances for the club.

James Maddison also slipped an attempt fortuitously under Bart Verbruggen, marking his second goal in three league games. His next strike will be his 50th in the competition.

Yet for all of that first-half fluidity and attacking prowess, a comical collapse left Spurs ninth in the league table heading into the weekend, and that position may not improve here considering their form against fellow London clubs, especially given Son Heung-min is still a big injury doubt. He has missed the last three Spurs fixtures in all competitions, as well as South Korea’s matches during the international break.

Postecoglou’s men have lost four of their last six Premier League games against their capital-city rivals (W1 D1), as many as they head in their previous 16 (W9 D3).

In stark contrast, West Ham are unbeaten in their last three Premier League away London derbies (W1 D2), against Crystal Palace, Fulham and Brentford, their longest such run since a six-game stretch between January and December 1999.

That record may raise an eyebrow for some concerned West Ham supporters, with pressure seemingly mounting on Julen Lopetegui before their 4-1 hammering of Ipswich Town before the pause for international football.

Michail Antonio, Mohammed Kudus, Jarrod Bowen and Lucas Paquetá were all on target in the drubbing, though the challenge is now to build on that performance, having not managed back-to-back league victories since March.

Antonio needed less than a minute to find the net against Ipswich and will fancy his chances again on Saturday, with his six goals against Tottenham more than he’s scored against any other Premier League opponent. Five of those six goals have been the first of the match, with only Ryan Giggs scoring the opener more against Tottenham in Premier League history (6).

Lopetegui will be reliant on Antonio to lead the line, though Bowen’s impact should not be ignored. He has been involved in 33 open-play shot-ending sequences this campaign, more than any other West Ham player this term.

In the rout of Ipswich, Bowen also became the first West Ham player since Antonio – against Arsenal in March 2021 – to have 5+ shots and create 5+ chances in a single Premier League match.

Tottenham vs West Ham Head-to-Head

Postecoglou could hardly ask for a better fixture to get his side back on track, with Tottenham only managing more Premier League victories against Everton (31) and Manchester City (28) than their 26 over West Ham.

West Ham did come from behind to win this exact fixture 2-1 last season, however, as Bowen and James Ward-Prowse were on target after Cristian Romero’s early opener.

Spurs have not suffered back-to-back home defeats in the league against West Ham since doing so in April and November 1966, though, and another record could play in their favour on Saturday.

Tottenham and West Ham have faced off in seven Premier League meetings straight after the international break, with the Hammers failing to win any of those (L4 D3).

Tottenham vs West Ham Prediction

The Opta supercomputer struggles to see much other than a Tottenham win, with the hosts victorious in a dominant 55.4% of 10,000 pre-match simulations.

West Ham managed rare back-to-back wins over their London rivals in just 21.6% of the same data-led sims. The draw came in slightly more often at 23.0%.

Spurs’ collapse at Brighton saw their top-four chances drop to 15.4% in Opta’s end-of-season predictions, with West Ham ending the season in their current 12th position most often, doing so in 13.4% of simulations.

Tottenham vs West Ham Predicted Lineups

Opta Power Rankings

The Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system that assigns an ability score to over 13,000 domestic football teams on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the world.

Ahead of kick-off this weekend, here is the Opta Power Ranking for both sides.

Despite being two goals behind at half-time, Brighton & Hove Albion defeated Tottenham Hotspur with a brilliant second-half comeback. Relive the match and analyse the Opta data with our Brighton vs Tottenham stats page.

Brighton staged a phenomenal second-half comeback, as they came from two goals down to win 3-2 after second-half goals from Yankuba Minteh, Georginio Rutter and Danny Welbeck.

Brennan Johnson continued his excellent form of late with the opening goal of the match on 23 minutes before James Maddison added a second eight minutes before half-time.

Few would have expected Brighton to recover from a poor first half in which opponents Spurs dominated throughout, but three goals in the space of 18 second-half minutes secured an unlikely three points.

Welbeck’s match-winning strike saw him score for the fourth time in the Premier League this season, while it was his first against Spurs in the Premier League since January 2014 (for Manchester United), ending a run of 13 games against them in the competition without scoring.

Our Opta match centre delivers you all the Brighton vs Tottenham stats from their Premier League meeting at the American Express Stadium in Brighton.

The match centre below includes team and player stats, expected goals data, passing networks, an Opta chalkboard and more. It gives you everything you need to do your own in-game and post-match analysis.

Underneath the match centre you can find the official Opta stats on the game as well.

Brighton & Hove Albion vs Tottenham Hotspur: Post-Match Facts

Tottenham Hotspur lost a Premier League game they led by 2+ goals in for just the second time in their last 166 such matches (W159 D5), also losing 4-2 away to Manchester City in January 2023 having also gone in 2-0 up at half-time.

This is the 10th time that Tottenham have lost a Premier League game in which they led by 2+ goals, the first club to hit double figures for this, and at least three more than any other side in the competition’s history.

Tottenham’s Brennan Johnson has scored in each of his last six appearances in all competitions, the first Spurs’ player to do so since Harry Kane between December 2018 and January 2019.

Johnson has now netted more goals in 10 appearances this season (6) than across 34 total outings for Spurs in 2023-24 (5).

Danny Welbeck scored his 27th Premier League for Brighton, but just his second winning goal for the Seagulls, also netting what proved to be the winning goal in a 2-1 victory over Leicester City in September 2021.

Can Ange Postecoglou’s men follow up last week’s impressive win at Old Trafford with another away victory? We look ahead to Sunday’s Premier League game at the Amex Stadium with our Brighton vs Tottenham prediction and preview.

Brighton vs Tottenham Stats: The Key Insights

The Opta supercomputer gives the edge to Tottenham in this one, with the London club winning 41.2% of its simulations.

Since the start of last season, no team has drawn more home Premier League games than Brighton (eight).

Tottenham have had the most shots on target of any team in the Premier League this season (45). In fact, it’s the most shots on target Spurs have had in their opening six games of a campaign on record (since 2003-04).

As recently as a week ago, Brighton and Hove Albion were in high spirits, while Tottenham were hoping to get their season back on track.

The Seagulls losing their unbeaten league status at Chelsea followed by Spurs comprehensively beating Manchester United at Old Trafford has somewhat turned those respective moods around.

The two will meet at the Amex Stadium on Sunday in what feels like another potentially big game for both as they look to point their Premier League campaigns in the right direction.

Brighton were taken apart by Cole Palmer in their 4-2 loss at Chelsea last time out, but they have drawn their last two home Premier League matches. They last drew three in a row in November 2023. In fact, since the start of last season, no team has drawn more home games than Brighton (eight).

Following their disappointing back-to-back defeats to Newcastle United and rivals Arsenal last month, Tottenham have won their last two Premier League games, last winning three in a row in December last year. Spurs have recorded three goals in each victory (3-1 vs Brentford, 3-0 vs Man Utd), and should they score at least three in another win on Sunday, it will be the first time they have done so for three games running since April 2022.

Brighton will need to improve their record in the month of October, having won just one out of 16 October games since 2020 (D9 L6), which was a 4-1 win over Chelsea in 2022. Fabian Hürzeler’s side have started this season well, though, and have had 61.5% possession in the Premier League, Brighton’s highest average in a single campaign in the competition.

Young midfielder Carlos Baleba will be looking to follow up his impressive performance at Stamford Bridge. Having not produced a single goal involvement in any of his first 31 Premier League appearances, Baleba scored and assisted against Chelsea, making him the youngest Cameroonian to do so in a Premier League match (20 years, 269 days).

As for Tottenham, they have been getting forward with intent this season. Only Manchester City (115) have had more shots in the Premier League than Spurs (110), while they have had the most shots on target of any team (45). In fact, it’s the most shots on target Spurs have had in their opening six games of a season on record (since 2003-04).

One of the main reasons for that output has been Dejan Kulusevski, who continued his fine form at Old Trafford last week. He created nine chances in the win over Manchester United, the joint most by a Spurs player in a Premier League game on record (since 2003-04). The only other player to do so was Christian Eriksen, who managed it twice, in 2013 vs Newcastle and 2016 vs Crystal Palace.

Spurs made it five wins in a row in all competitions on Thursday with a 2-1 win at Ferencvárosi TC in the league phase of the Europa League, with goals from Pape Sarr and in-form Brennan Johnson, the latter having scored in all five of those victories.

Dominic Solanke didn’t find the net in Hungary, only coming on as a substitute in the 81st minute, but he will be looking to score in three consecutive Premier League games for the first time since December 2023.

The former Bournemouth striker is celebrating a recall to the England squad for the upcoming UEFA Nations League matches against Greece and Finland, and that decision from interim Three Lions manager Lee Carsley appears to be justified. Since the start of last season, the only Englishmen with more Premier League goals than Solanke (21) are Palmer (28) and Ollie Watkins (23).

As for team news, Brighton will again be without injured trio Jan Paul van Hecke, João Pedro and Matt O’Riley, while checks will be made on Joël Veltman, Simon Adingra and James Milner, who all missed the defeat at Chelsea. However, Hürzeler did confirm on Friday that long-term absentees Brajan Gruda and Solly March are back in training and could potentially feature on Sunday.

Richarlison and Wilson Odobert remain out for Spurs, while Ange Postecoglou said on Friday that captain Son Heung-min, who was absent for last week’s win at Man Utd with a thigh issue, is “unlikely” to be involved. The Australian was more optimistic about Destiny Udogie being ready, though, after he came off at half-time at Old Trafford with muscle tightness.

Brighton vs Tottenham Head-to-Head

Having lost consecutive Premier League home games against Tottenham without scoring in 2021-22 and 2022-23, Brighton won this exact fixture 4-2 last season.

Only one of the 14 Premier League meetings between Brighton and Tottenham has finished as a draw (1-1 in April 2018), with Spurs winning nine to the Seagulls’ four.

Their last meeting was at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in February, which Spurs won 2-1 thanks to a 96th-minute winner from Johnson.

Brighton vs Tottenham Prediction

The Opta supercomputer gives Tottenham the edge in this one, with Postecoglou’s men winning 41.2% of its 10,000 pre-match simulations.

Brighton came out on top 34.2% of the time, meaning almost a quarter of sims (24.6%) ended level.

As for season-long simulations, the supercomputer is currently of the impression that Spurs are likeliest to finish fifth (22.1%), while Brighton finish ninth most often (14.7%).

Brighton vs Tottenham Predicted Lineups

Opta Power Rankings

The Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system that assigns an ability score to over 13,000 domestic football teams on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the world.

Ahead of kick-off this weekend, here is the Opta Power Ranking for both sides.

Back-to-back wins against Qarabag and Ferencvárosi TC, coupled with poor results from other pre-tournament favourites, have seen Tottenham move to pole position in the Opta supercomputer’s projections to win the UEFA Europa League.

Tottenham Hotspur are now favourites to win the 2024-25 UEFA Europa League with the Opta supercomputer following the conclusion of Matchday 2.

With two wins from two against Qarabag and Ferencvárosi TC, Spurs are one of just five teams to still have a 100% record in the competition after the opening two matchdays, alongside Lazio, Lyon, FCSB and RSC Anderlecht.

When simulating the Europa League 10,000 times ahead of MD 1, Ange Postecoglou’s side won the competition in 8.6% of the simulations. That has now risen to 15.1%, above Serie A club Lazio (13.6%) and FC Porto (11.5%).

Lazio only won the Europa League in 6.1% of pre-season simulations by the supercomputer, but that has now increased to 13.6% following consecutive wins across the opening two matchdays against Dynamo Kyiv and Nice, tallying a competition-high seven goals.

Porto were the favourites ahead of MD 1, but a surprise away defeat to Bodø/Glimt in their opening game and a dramatic draw at home to Manchester United on MD 2 – a game in which they recovered from 2-0 down to lead 3-2 until a stoppage-time equaliser via Harry Maguire – have seen the Portuguese side drop to third favourites in the Opta supercomputer projections. They now have an 11.5% chance of winning the competition compared to 17.8% before a ball was kicked in 2024-25.

Spurs win the league phase of the competition in 24.7% of the latest Opta supercomputer simulations and secure a top-eight finish 80.5% of the time – both the highest of any club.

Lazio follow the Premier League side with respect to chances of finishing top in the league phase (20.4%), while Lyon – who have enjoyed wins over Olympiakos and Rangers in their two matches – are the only other side with more than a 10% likelihood of winning the league phase (11.7%).

Manchester United were only deemed to be sixth favourites before the competition began, lifting the trophy in 7.1% of the sims; after back-to-back draws with Twente and Porto, that’s dropped even further to 4.9%. The supercomputer now considers there to be as many as seven clubs likelier to go all the way, which is a pretty damning indictment of where the club now find themselves.

At the other end of the spectrum, it’s been a dreadful start to the 2024-25 Europa League for Turkish club Besiktas.

Following a 4-0 thrashing at Ajax and a 3-1 home defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt, and with a trip to high-flying Lyon to come next, they are projected to be eliminated at the league phase in 82.2% of the latest projections. Only Latvian side Rigas FS (84.6%) have a higher chance of elimination at this stage than they do.